2 GOP Loyalists Vie for Top Post at FHLBB : Washington Insider, Colorado Developer Seen as Having Inside Track

M. Danny Wall, a protege of Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah), and Philip D. Winn, a prominent Republican real estate developer from Colorado, are the leading candidates to take Edwin J. Gray’s job as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, officials close to the savings and loan industry say.

The race to become the nation’s top savings and loan regulator is a “tossup” between Wall and Winn, according to the chief executive of one Southern California S&L.; “It’s 50-50,” he said.

Another well-placed government official in Washington, though, said Wall has the inside track because top officials in the Reagan Administration support him. The job is a presidential appointment requiring Senate confirmation.

“Both Howard Baker and Jim Baker have signed off” on Wall, the government official said, meaning that both the White House chief of staff and the Treasury secretary have approved Wall for the job.

The job as bank board chairman normally doesn’t generate much excitement or interest beyond the savings and loan industry and Capitol Hill.

But the post is getting plenty of attention this year because the S&L; industry’s deposit insurance fund, administered by the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corp., is in dire financial condition. FSLIC insures customer deposits up to $100,000.

One of the board chairman’s primary jobs is to supervise FSLIC, which is technically insolvent following several years of mounting losses. FSLIC, which takes over savings and loans that have gotten into trouble, must bear the heavy cost involved in the liquidation or forced sale of failed savings and loans.

There are two openings on the three-member bank board with the resignation early this month of Lee Henkel, an attorney from Atlanta. Thus, it’s possible that Wall will be nominated for the chairman’s job, sources said, and that Winn will be offered Henkel’s position.

Long-shot possibilities for the post include Peter D. Herder, a prominent home builder from Tucson, Ariz., and Paula Hawkins, former U.S. senator from Florida, officials said. Gray’s term as chairman expires June 30.

Gray’s tenure as chairman has been marred by continued staff upheaval, industry turmoil, travel expense scandals and unending complaints about alleged regulatory inconsistency and incompetence.

Gray, a former public relations official and longtime associate of President Reagan, has indicated that he’s eagerly awaiting the end of June, saying that anyone who’d want the chairman’s job for more than four years “would have to have rocks in his head.” The job pays $82,500 a year.

The race between Wall and Winn is a contest of two party loyalists, one of whom has spent his adult life in public service, and the other a businessman and Republican stalwart from Colorado, whose resume also includes experience in government.

Wall, 47, has strong support in Congress and within the savings and loan industry. Among his boosters are Garn and the chief executives of several large S&Ls; in California.

Associates and admirers generally praise Wall for his intelligence, integrity and knowledge of S&L; industry issues. “I can’t say enough good things about him,” Leonard Shane, head of Mercury Savings & Loan in Huntington Beach, said.

Some, however, question Wall’s administrative ability to tackle what is the increasingly difficult and trying task of supervising some 3,200 federally insured savings and loan associations, hundreds of which remain in critical condition because of loans in foreclosure.

“Dan is bright, but . . . he’s not a coalition builder,” said an aide to one member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. “He’s kind of rigid.”

Wall has an association with Garn that extends to the early 1970s, when Garn was mayor of Salt Lake City and Wall headed the city’s redevelopment agency. Wall is Republican staff director of the Senate Banking Committee and headed the committee staff when Garn was committee chairman from 1981 until early this year.

Wall’s other jobs include seven years as urban renewal director of Fargo, N.D., and several years as legislative aide to Garn. Wall, a native of South Dakota, received a bachelor of science degree from North Dakota State University in 1963.

Winn’s chief backers are developers from Colorado and one of the state’s senators, Republican William L. Armstrong. The 62-year-old Winn is a politically active builder who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Colorado several years ago. He now chairs a company in the Denver area known as Philips Development.

Winn, who declined to return phone calls, was one of three finalists last year to head a newly created agency in the savings and loan industry known as the Federal Asset Disposition Assn. The job eventually went to San Francisco real estate executive Roslyn B. Payne.

Early in the Reagan Administration, Winn was an assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and, according to his resume, is now serving as chairman of a federally supervised savings and loan in Grand Junction.

He has also received several awards for his involvement in charitable and housing activities, including a “Citizen of the Year” honor in 1981 from the Colorado Assn. for Housing and Building. Winn received a business degree from the University of Michigan in 1948.

Winn’s high public visibility in Colorado is in sharp contrast with Wall, a Washington insider who is virtually unknown to the general public. “One of the curses of being a staff member on Capitol Hill is you stay in the shadows,” he said in a recent phone interview.

But Wall makes no secret of his ambition. He announced several months ago that he wanted the job.

“I want to contribute something to an industry that is in a sad state of affairs,” Wall said, adding: “The industry needs a Mr. Clean who knows his way around D. C.”